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Sunday, May 24, 2015

We thought we would write a little bit about the things we have found in everyday life which we find to be "Orky!" They certainly do seem to show up more and more often!FontsWe found an Ork Font just recently -- is going to help us add quotes to our Ork Photos!This is called "Battle Breath" -- got it on http://www.dafont.com/.

MusicWe have discussed this quite a bit. One of us proposes George Thorogood and the Destroyers' "Bad to the Bone" is Orky music - but we're not what else. (Youtube video)

Video Games- Bad Piggies. We know Bad Piggies as the phone app (iPhone and iPad for us) which was created by the same people who made Angry Birds.

http://www.badpiggies.com/In Bad Piggies, the player gets to build various crazy contraptions -- and try to drive or fly them to a destination. Pretty simple - but there are some great viations to the builds. Umbrella for flapping; rockets for launching; suction-cup wheels (for going up-side-down).... Many of these end up with builds which remind us of Ork Trukks and Fightas!- Skylanders Trap Team There are several characters in Skylanders Trap Team which are totally Orky. Here are a few: Shrednaught (check out that big chain saw -- which swings around the vehicle)....

Tread-Head (check out the guy riding inside of his tread! His attack -- drive over the top of people!)

Jawbreaker (looks a little bit like an Ork Walker!)

And, Bruiser Cruiser (this looks like a Grot in a Killikan to us!)

Movies

Mad Max, Fury Road Wow! Could have used the Ork Codex as a checklist while watching the latest Mad Max movie. Got to watch Orky No-wats one after another. Boarding ramps, reenforced rams, don't touch dat, etc.... Was really cool to see :)

If this doesn't say BattleWagon, not sure what does!

Sports- Demolition Derby. We think the best Orky sport has got to be Demolition Derby! (Youtube video) Where else do you weld together something that will run - and then crash into all of the cars around you! [Watching these cars run with flat tires and blown radiators seems like the very definition of Ramshackle!]

PS: We didn't know this - but there are RV, school bus and combine demolition derbies as well!!

The LA County Fair Demolition Derby from 2013 - Very Orky!

Books / novelsThere aren't lots and lots of things to read from the Ork point of view. We have found a few posts here and there which have helped out. Here are some of the ones we've found and liked!- Book about an Ork Mek building a Stompa: Engine of Mork by Sandy Mitchell [we got an electronic copy of this for reading on the phone]....- Graphic Novel / Comics about Ork Fightas: Deff Skwadron by Gordon Rennie & Paul Jeacock [we've read this on-line]....- Blood and Thunder by Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton [we got a compilation graphic novel with the whole story off of Amazon.com]

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Hi everyone,Yesterday we had a chance to play Battlefleet Gothic against Mr. M over at Game Kastle.Our takeaway is that the game is extremely fun. Sort of felt like a mix between X-Wing (which is very fast and simple to play) and Battletech (which can be pretty complicated to play).Our game ended up taking about 3 hours - but we were consulting the rules pretty often - and weren't super familiar with the table which determines how many dice to roll.The Ork Force:

The Ork Force

Supreme Warboss Fork sent the following 900 point force into battle. Mission: "Hit da humies!"From near to far in the photo:- Savage Gunships = 3 (squadron)- Kill Kroozer = 1- Brute Ram Ships = 4 (squadron)- Kill Kroozer = 1- Terror Ships = 2 (squadron)We had messed up and missed the rule which required us to have a Warboss aboard a ship if we had over 600 points in our force. Showed this to Mr. M and we agreed to play on regardless.Here's our view of Mr. M's Imperium fleet....

Mr. M's forces

Mr. M didn't deploy his Battleship (not enough points) -- and that was probably good news for us. However, the ship in the upper corner did have a Nova Cannon -- and another of his Battle Cruisers had an extremely long 60 cm firing range!And, so -- the battle started. Ork tactics? Charge straight ahead! [The Fleet equivalent of Waaagh!]

The Orks charge forward and fire!

We launched our Fighta Bommas along with Gunship escorts from the Terror Ships. And, sent them off after the Nova Cannon toting Battle Cruiser. (We were worried!)We were also now in range for shots straight ahead against the main body of Mr. M's force. Several of those hit - but Mr. M's shields held up to the damage.

The Terror Ships Launch!

Then, Mr. M fired back! The Nova Cannon hit one of our Killa Kroozers (luckily no critical damage); and Mr. M fired hard against the Ramships (two were wiped out). He also put some damage into the Terror Ships.

Mr. M fires back at us!

And, we kept charging in.... At one point things were looking good for Fork's Ork Fleet. The Terror ships were able to cross behind the Nova Cannon Battle Cruiser. And, a Warp Core explosion had damaged some of Mr. M's other ships.

One of our best moments!

Here's a look at the Terror Ships behind that Battle Cruisers. Extremely cool the geometries that ended up occurring in this battle!

Crossing behind the enemy!

We learned a lot about Warp Core explosions. Something to be mindful of, to be certain!!!Also - as Fork's Orks continued to charge forward there were multiple broadsides. It seemed cool that we were in there -- but in hind-sight, one thing we should have done was "point" the enemy more. Ork ships in a broadside didn't seem to be as powerful as Ork ships straight ahead.

Lots of action in the middle of the board!

And, the end game.... It ended up as a 2-2 duel. (The Killa Kroozers didn't survive the charge down the middle of Mr. M's ships.)But, the Orks couldn't manage to reload the Terror Ships. A big lesson in setting up squadrons and leadership numbers. Couldn't manage to roll a 6 or less on two dice....So, in the 2-2 duel, the Terror ships had guns only -- and the other issue was that we didn't do well getting spun around to charge right at one of the ships.We tried for the same tactic of charging down the middle -- but that was a boo-boo. Terror Ships' side guns aren't as powerful as Killa Kroozer side guns -- and all we could manage was to drop Mr. M's shields only to have them go up again the next turn....

Our two Terror Ships trying the double-broadside against Mr. M's two remaining ships. (Not a good idea in retrospect!)

End result? Mr. M picked apart the two Terror Ships - and we did lose.But, it was really fun! Really great that Mr. M proposed that we try this out :)Lots of lessons learned:- Need Ork Warboss (our mistake on that rule)- Make squadrons such that Terror Ships have high leadership- Consider charging straight ahead -- fewer broadsides

Quick post update:- Seeing that there are lots of people out there who are still working hard at playing BFG. Feeling good to know that because this was really fun to play. Really excited by this blog post of a person who is scratch-building an Ork fleet: Vongutenboom Blog Ork BFG Post

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Hi everyone,We got our "Hose and Wire Maker" from Forge Planet in Poland two days ago -- and we thought we'd write about how it has worked out :)Searching for ways to make hoses and wires to add to our Fork and Spork models (link to that work) and to our second Ork Train (link to that as well), we had watched this Youtube video where a person in Poland demonstrates using a little hand-press to make hoses and tubes and wires.Here's a link to the Youtube video

And, here's a link to the Polish company's websiteIt looks very each and fun in his video -- but we weren't sure if we should order one 'all the way from Poland.' But, after chatting with Mr's Z and L about "how do you make hoses and pipes" it seemed that this was a credible solution.

Our shipment from Poland :)

Well, sure enough, the package arrived. At first, when the Post Office said where the package was from, was wondering what we had ordered "from Portland" -- but turned out to be our shipment "from Poland".... Not everyday you get a box from Poland -- cool the see the stamps!Note to everyone, that there is going to be some assembly required. The pieces of the little hand press arrive sort of like a Games Workshop model. Still on the sprue and also with some flashing -- so we'll need to cut that part off.

Here are our pressing parts. As you can see we have a little bit of work to do to have everything looking spiffy -- that's OK -- impressed that it works!

But, that's OK with us. The cool thing is that the little hand-press works! We took a stab at things we had seen in the video before we had cut all of the flashing off. Dang-it the little thing is slick. You end up with tubes and hoses just like he does in the Youtube video -- and we're pretty much rookies at trying this thing.In the picture below is the base of the hand-press. The idea is to put a bottom half of the press into the slot in the base. To try things out, we just used the base as the flat surface to test with. And, worked pretty well....

Tried the press tools out using the base -- adding water the way the person did in the video helped out! Recommend that!

Here are some of our trials. Different hoses.... Tried to make an Ork "horn" -- not too bad....

Here are our very first trials. Not too bad, right? It was really easy to shape them after we had rolled them into these patterns.

So, now that we have this working, here's the order list for the hand-press hose and wire shop....1) Need to make some hoses and wires to connect Spork's backpack to his Power-Spork. Should be pretty easy -- doesn't need to be much longer than the ones in our trials.2) Going to make some bundles and set of cables and hoses to go from the "engine" of Da Pain Train up to the "turret" -- to transfer power so to speak.... This will be a little more tricky because we're going to need to figure out some way to splice sections together to make some which are ~ 3 inches long.Will let everyone know how those go :)

UPDATE June 2nd, 2015:

In addition to practicing with the little press, we've also found a place where we can get little miniatures tubes (in long sections) and also gotten some coaching on using actual wire to model large cables. Here is our blog posting about that. Plan is to put all of these skills together and get to work on Da Pain Train!

Friday, May 8, 2015

Hi everyone,Will be playing a 40K Campaign -- our friend Mr. M running the campaign; playing with Mr's L, Z and C....Below is the exciting Astropathic Transmission Mr. M shared which has started things off.

+++Incoming Astropathic Transmission+++

+++Authentication::Matteo Morellis:: Captain 8th Company+++

+++Origin ::Segmentum Tempestus+++

+++To::Pedro Kantor, Chapter Master::Eyes Only+++

–Begin Message–

My Lord,

We have received a partial astropathic distress signal from the rogue trader Van Buran’s cruiser indicating that it was under attack by unknown Xenos in the Pythos system. The transmission reports that the rogue trader’s fleet stumbled upon the Pythos system shortly after it had emerged from a warp storm and indicated the potential presence of significant stocks of war materials dating from the great crusade including space marine wargear. Forgemaster Mendez believes that the machine spirits of at least some materials may still be intact and recoverable.

Sector intelligence indicates the presence of Tyranids and Orks in the nearby Octarius subsector. An incursion by either xenos thread could result in the permanent loss of any war materials, many of which could be used to rebuild the chapter’s armory and fleet.

I have ordered my strike cruiser, Sword of Rynn to divert to the Pythos system with all speed to the Pythos system for the empire. My battle brothers are even now preparing to purge the xenos with holy fire.

There is only the Emperor. He is our shield and protector

-End Message-

Mr. M has been working on a planet and a moon for the campaign.

Mr. M's planet and moon models for our campaign!

Some discussion about "taking over the moon" in the early stages -- but sounds like to get to the moon, Mr. M is going to require taking over the Spaceport first -- as a gateway.Mr. M has set up rules for the Campaign -- and there is a provision for each player to have a Supreme Warlord -- at 275 points -- to head up that player's army.Lots of spirited discussion on our side -- but we have gotten excited about the idea of playing Orks with our Supreme Warlords "Fork and Spork"! (Big credit to Mr.'s L, Z and M for a very long IM session where the idea for Fork and Spork was 'spored'.)Will post more about "Fork and Spork" -- but here's what we can share so far....- Fork -- the leader of the Yellow Ork clan. (We'll work on a better name than "Yellow Ork Clan").... He's got a choppa weapon with forks on the end -- looks like a "Fork"....

Here is Supreme Warlord Fork! (Leader of the Yellow Ork Clan)

- Spork -- the leader of the Pink Ork clan. (Yup, better work on better names there as well.) He's got a "spork" weapon which are we are building out of a spoon (Baskin-Robbins) with tines on the end....

Still working on Spork. Painting him in pieces and then will assemble. Here is his "Spork" weapon!

Have more work to quickly get done on Fork and Spork - to be ready for the first battle(s). Haven't ever played in a campaign before - so not really sure what to expect. But, already this is tremendous fun!!!

[By the way, we're now wondering if Fork and Spork ("brothers") grew from a damaged/mutated spore -- and were co-joined early in life. *Until* after one particularly strong argument (perhaps due to feeling the Waaagh! particularly strongly one-day) Fork chopped Spork away from the shared body....]

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Hi everyone,Our friend, Mr. M (who often plays Space Marines), asked if we wanted to play a game of Battlefleet Gothic.Sounded good to us (we had never played -- or heard of Battlefleet Gothic). Mr. M had explained that this was a game with 40K space ships. Since we like spaceships and we like 40K -- this seemed like a very good combination!We met up a Game Kastle to play a couple of weeks ago. Turns out that Mr. M didn't have all of the ships needed to play (we were going to play Imperium vs. Chaos) -- so we played X-Wing instead. (Here's a link to our write-up from that game)Mr. M did have his rule books -- and we had fun checking out the different kinds of ships. (And, a bit of a bummer to learn that GamesWorkshop doesn't make Battlefleet Gothic any longer.)

Mr. M's collection of Battlefleet Gothic rules....

When we got home, we started searching eBay for Battlefleet Gothic rule books and ships. We really wanted to set up a fleet of Ork ships (they looked cool and Orky).... Mr. M had warned us that lots of things on eBay could be over-priced since BFG isn't made any longer.

So, after lots of waiting, we spotted a set of ships which weren't so bad -- and did make a purchase on eBay :)

What we managed to find on eBay -- no directions -- had to consult the web to find how the pieces went together -- and also which ship was which....

Mr. M had warned us that assembly might be a bit tricky -- that some of the molded parts didn't line up very well. And, we did find that this was tricky.By now we've learned from experience that while lots of people are skilled users of superglue -- we are not. For us, when in doubt, we break out the epoxy! (It does a nice job of filling in the seams of the Orky parts which -- sure enough -- didn't fit together very well.)Only trick was that we needed a few more hands and fingers than we had between us to hold the parts together. So, we got some really little clamps at Home Depot and went to work....

Terror ship gluing - used clamps to hold everything steady....

On some of the ships (think it was the Kill Kroozer) the balance of the model is a bit off-center - so we had to apply weights while our epoxy cured....

Gluing together the Kill Kroozer. (Weight on the back to hold the wing section fixed during curing.)

Our fleet is coming together. Just about ready for priming and then painting.

Here are our ships nearly done. One good thing about the epoxy gluing - a fall on the floor won't stop our Ork fleet!

So, now we're pretty excited about the other Ork ships out there. We did manage to find an original rulebook. Not the yellow "Armada" one -- and we're eager to find some of those Ork Battleships -- or maybe make our own ??

One idea for an Ork Battleship. "Oreo Class" -- full of food and dakka!

Some other thoughts as we get ready to play....

- We're looking forward to building Ork Rocks and also some of those drifting Hulks.

- We read about the Hammer Battle Cruiser -- seems that there was never a model for that. Bit of a bummer -- maybe we'll build our own for that as well :)

Were not sure what people would want to play -- so we packed up two modest 40K armies (some Orks and some Space Marines); packed up X-wing; packed up D&D; and packed up ourselves. Then, made the quick trip north

We ended up playing a D&D card/miniature game (was new for us -- cool way to quickly play somethink like D&D 5e); X-wing; and a fun game called Telephone Pictionary.

Ravenloft D&D Card/Miniature Game

The Ravenloft board game we played :)

We borrowed Meeples' Store copy to play....

This turned out to be quite a bit of fun. Hadn't known that the miniatures in the game were so detailed.What we liked about it was that out of the 6-7 people in our group, a good half of the group had not ever played D&D (of any edition). So the "board game version" let everyone start playing really quickly.

A few turns into the D&D session. We had killed a Kobold and were taking on a Skeleton. Still learning how to help each other out.

It helped that we had one person in the group who had played some of the board games before. We were a little bit slow to catch on to the game mechanics. Then he helped us understand how to "activate" bad guys -- and also how to understand who would "operate them"....The one thing we missed was that when we folded up the game, that-was-that for those characters. No real way for them to continue on. Heard that in the Pathfinder board game this isn't the case -- and that you can keep treasure you find -- and progress your character from session to session. Will have to check that out :)Also missing was the fun social part of the game. Those of us who had played enjoyed that part of the game -- "getting into character" is always fun.Lastly, another really positive part of the game. The miniatures are great -- and lots of them. Would be lots of fun to work on painting those!!

Also -- great way to learn some gaming basics, "Don't Split up the Party!!!"

Star Wars X-WingTwo of us took a quick break during the D&D session and played a game of X-Wing.Here's where the size of the Meeples store is great. There was a Magic tournament going on while we were there. Did they still have a free table we could use for X-wing ?? No problem!We played a quick game -- sort of 5 on 5 -- with the Rebels outgunning the Empire ships by a little bit. (It was Luke and 4 of his pals against 5 Academy Pilots). [We weren't trying to create a fair battle -- instead trying to show the people in our group how to play.]

"Hey, Luke -- I think we can take them!"

That ended up working out pretty well. Got to explain the game dynamics in a situation which wasn't too stressful. (Is it easier to learn a game when you're winning??)

Everyone had fun learning how to plan out the moves for the Rebel Fleet. (And, the one of us who was playing the Empire went into the other room to check-out the progress with Ravenloft while the Rebel planning session was going on.)Last, we played a session of Telephone PictionaryHow to play....Need a set of sheets of paper (something like 10) which are bound or stapled together.The game starts with each player WRITING a phrase or sentence on their pad of paper....Then each pad is passed left or right (keep it the same once selecting). And, the receiving person reads the phrase or sentence -- and then DRAWS their impression of what is written. AND, the sheet with the writing is folded over....So, when the pads are passed again, the 3rd person to see that pad can only see the drawing (not the writing). AND, then they WRITE their version of a phrase or sentence of what they see in the drawing.And, so on....Eventually, what happens? You see your phrase come back again (only now it is changed)!!!

Everyone hard at work during the DRAWING phase....

It was lots of fun -- everything changed.

After several passes, a storm trooper turned into fire fighters putting out a fire. Ducks with a postman turned into a mechanic attacking a bird with a wrench. A tractor hitting a dog turned into a dog chasing a tractor and back to a tractor running over a dog. And, porcupines turned into kittens :)